(second block, fourth letter of the prisoners' quadratic tap code...)

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...am here to tap through the walls.


Wed Jan, 12 2005

My Top Ten Favorite Rock Guitar Solos

(Worked up for Michele's post.)

Eric Clapton (Beatles) -- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (It's so perfectly blue for those chord changes.)

Terry Kath (Chicago) -- "25 or 6 to 4" (The very first 'shred' in rock history, and it still works for me.)

Tony Peluso (Carpenters) -- "Goodbye To Love" (Perfect -- and perfectly intense -- melodic sweetness: I always wished it would go on forever.)

Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple) -- "Highway Star" (Utter reckless daring: Blackmore not only survives, but flourishes.)

Joe Perry (Aerosmith) -- "One Way Street" (Stretched out to his own satisfaction, dirty-blue as it gets, with masterful swing to it.)

Skunk Baxter (Steely Dan) -- "My Old School" (Technical ecstasy, in all the right grooves.)

Frank Zappa -- "Apostrophe" (Total rant-o-rama, past-master of the wah-wah pedal. None better, ever.)

Donald Roeser (Blue Öyster Cult) -- "Harvester Of Eyes" -- (He rides like a surfer on the biggest wave, with sneering grace.)

Stevie Ray Vaughan (David Bowie) -- "Putting Out Fire (Theme from 'Cat People')" (That's the low-down Stevie, before we knew who he was.)

Steve Howe (Yes) -- "Roundabout" (Blazing virtuosity in a sentimental favorite.)

(Special Consideration -- the all-time best rhythm guitar track in rock history was recorded by Davey Johnstone, on Elton John's "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting".)

Jan 12, 05 | 9:03 pm

AxeBites

Various guitars I see floating by, mostly Gibson and mostly eBay.

Early Norlin ES-335 -- 1970, in Walnut ("ES-335TDW"). This is a period-piece look and feel, and arguably the sound as well but that's to cut things very finely. A "classic" 335 would be the original of 1958 in the Sunburst or Natural finish, or the Cherry Red of 1959; the Walnut of 1970 (second year of that finish offering) is not really a "classic" 335. In the history of the Gibson aesthetic, this is analogous to, say, vertically-striped polyester bell-bottoms or Bahama Blue shag carpeting. None of this is to say that they're not cool guitars, and this is a nice one. Excellent photographs.

Chrome hardware, featuring the trapeze tailpiece (like my L-47 and I've always liked it) and ABR-1 bridge with period-typical nylon saddles. Bound rosewood fretboard, with small block markers, and then the crown inlay at the machine head. These would be the T-top Humbuckers. Vintage Nazis would moan that the upper bouts are pointy (the body templates were wearing-out in the factory) and the fourteen-degree machine head with the volute signals a sometimes not-fun era of the line, but these things really do rock or moan or whatever you want a 335-type semi-hollow to do. ...which, of course, is because it really is a 335.


In the months since I've let AxeBites languish all to bleedin' hell, Gibson's Robot Guitar technology has sifted out to other models than the original Les Paul application. I don't know how it's going: I still haven't even seen one of these self-tuners. I don't see piles of them burning on the sides of the highway, nor reverent hangings in display cases over bars, so who knows? This 2008 Robot SG is ready to rock in the Metallic Red. Nickel hardware; it's the stoptail wired for data to send to the tuners, with dual Humbuckers. It's a bound rosewood fretboard, but I really like the single-bound machine head with the crown inlay. That's a real cool old-school look, right there, to set off that crazy-ass color. {nod}